Please take the time contact FDOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. As she thinks that this statement is going to make all feel better about being priced gouged ! “We’re sympathetic to them, but it’s tough on everyone.” Demand they bring back the many items that they have discontinued and lower prices.

While the economic downturn has caused the price of goods and commodities to decrease in the free world, the cost of items in Florida’s prison canteens has skyrocketed under a new contract.

Florida law requires that items sold in prison canteens “shall be priced comparatively with like items for retail sale at fair market prices.” That provision was enacted in 1996, along with another directive that transferred canteen profits from the Inmate Welfare Fund to the state’s General Revenue Fund.

In other words, rather than utilizing canteen profits to fund recreation programs, chapel activities and other services for prisoners, those profits now go directly to funding state operations. The result is that activities previously funded by the Inmate Welfare Fund have been eliminated or must rely on donations to operate.

The state’s General Revenue Fund netted about $30 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 as a result of the canteen contract…